Can Catholics believe in both God and evolution?

The short answer to this question is that yes, Catholics can be faithful and accept evolution, with a few caveats. It’s a complicated topic, so let me try to explain a bit about how it relates to our faith.
 
There are three ways to think about how things or persons came about: instantaneous creation, atheistic evolution or theistic evolution. Let me consider each in turn.
 
An “instantaneous creation” theory suggests that something came into being instantaneously. This process would take no time at all. “Poof!” And, there it is, as it is. Some believe in instantaneous creation of the universe, plant and animal life, and man, all at once, about 6,000 years ago, based upon their reading of Sacred Scripture. This is not necessarily the Catholic understanding. And, honestly, it doesn’t seem to make sense scientifically or biblically. However, in one sense we do believe that God instantaneously created the universe because, in one instant, God created all matter, the whole universe, out of nothing. But, that may have been billions of years ago, and things may have changed since then. As the First Vatican Council, back in 1870, declared, “the world and all things which are contained in it, both spiritual and material, as regards their whole substance, have been produced by God from nothing.” Catholic theology and doctrine do not explain exactly how things unfolded in the time since then. 
 
Next, let me discuss “atheistic evolution.” This is the understanding that things evolve gradually, by mere chance, over a very, very long time. Some people believe that there is no God guiding any kind of evolution, that it’s all chance. They apply atheistic evolution to the origins of the universe, of all life, and of man. Faithful Catholics cannot accept this understanding of evolution.
 
Finally, let me discuss a third type of evolution, “theistic evolution.” This type of evolution suggests that things came to be, as they are, gradually, step-by-step, but not necessarily by mere chance. This sort of evolution takes more time than instantaneous creation but less time than atheistic evolution because there’s someone invisibly guiding the process. We call that guidance “divine providence.” As Catholics, we can believe this!
 
Having those three types of evolution in mind, what does the Church say about the evolution of the universe? We know that it was instantaneously brought into being out of nothing. But, there is no “official” stance from the Church on what happened next—that’s the business of science. Though, again, the Church is not opposed to science, done properly. As a side note, it’s worth mentioning that it was Georges Lemaître, a Catholic priest and physicist, who developed the Big Bang Theory. In short, if stars, planets, etc., evolved over time, however that happened, we must admit they were ultimately created by God.
 
What does the Church say about the evolution of life? The Catholic Church has no official position on whether life evolves from species to species over time as described in science textbooks. Again, that’s the job of scientists, not theologians. That said, it is interesting to note that Gregor Mendel, the “father of modern genetics,” was an Augustinian priest as well as a scientist. In short, if life evolved the way biologists today suggest, we can accept that as Catholics so long as we admit that this was a “theistic evolutionary” process, guided by God’s providence.
 
Finally, what does the Church say about the evolution of man? The Church allows for the possibility that man’s body developed from previous species through some form of theistic evolution. But, we must remember, man is not a mere body. We are composed of a material body and a spiritual (not made of matter) soul. We are obliged to believe that the human soul is not the product of any kind of evolution, but rather is specially created, instantaneously, by God. Pope Pius XII wrote, in his 1950 encyclical Humani generis, “the teaching authority of the Church does not forbid that… research and discussions…take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter—[but] the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God.” This means that we cannot believe that God created man entirely from apes, as man is both body and soul, and our souls have not evolved from anything. They were created instantaneously by God. 
 
Many people think science and faith are opposed. Nothing is further from the truth! If faith and science seem to disagree, we either have our science wrong or are misunderstanding God’s message. Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real disagreement between them. God gave us minds that think rationally. He created a rational world that can be understood with these minds. The sciences are a gift from God that, used properly, glorify Him.
 
In the words of the Catechism, “Consequently, ... research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner … can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God…” (CCC 159).
 
Fr. Signalness is pastor of Queen of the Most Holy Rosary in Stanley and St. Ann in Berthhold. If you have a question you were afraid to ask, now is the time to ask it! Simply email your question to [email protected] with the “Question Afraid to Ask” in the subject line.